Seduced (The Billionaire's Command #1) (2 page)

“Yeah, it is.”

About fifteen minutes
later our excitement wore off and exhaustion set in. We crawled
into the incredibly comfortable beds and went to sleep. As I
drifted off, I thought to myself that this was going to be the
greatest week ever. Little did I know how right I was, and that it
was also going to change my life.

* * *

For the next three days
Lisa, myself, and occasionally some of the other staff from our
branch hung out and relaxed in Hawaii in style. Lisa, as promised,
booked a snorkelling tour, where we went to a place called Turtle
Bay in a wonderful, modern catamaran. Sure enough, I saw dozens of
sea turtles, and even an octopus, to my complete and total
amazement. It was absolutely awesome.

On the fourth day, Lisa
and I were going to leave the resort and go find somewhere nice to
eat along the main strip. We were just leaving the hotel when I
realized I’d left my sunglasses in my room.

“Crap. Can you wait for
me in the lobby? It’s so bright out I don’t think I’ll be able to
see anything if I don’t take my sunglasses.”

“Yeah, sure,” Lisa
replied, and I made my way back to the elevator. I was racking my
brain trying to remember where I had put the sunglasses, so much so
that I didn’t notice the man coming out of the elevators when the
doors opened, and I barrelled straight into him.

“Oh my God, I’m so
sorry!” I exclaimed, embarrassed.

“No, no, it was my
fault. I apologize,” the man replied, grabbing my shoulders gently
to steady me. His touch was strong, confident, and it sent a surge
of electricity running through me. I looked up at the man, and my
breath caught in my throat.

Looking down at me was
the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen in my life. High cheekbones, a
day’s worth of dark brown stubble, hair that seemed to practically
flow from his head in a polo shirt and jeans that looked formal
somehow, here in Hawaii. I grabbed his arm to steady myself, the
hard muscles of his biceps bulging against my skin.

For the first time in
my life, I found myself completely speechless. I wanted to say
something, anything, but no words were coming out of my mouth. I
was completely captivated, taken in by the man’s glistening blue
eyes, like the deep waters here on the Hawaiian coast.

“Are you alright?” he
asked me, his voice kind, but deep.

“Yes. Yes, I’m fine.
Thank you,” I stammered, feeling like an idiot. The man smiled at
me and I melted into a pool on the elevator floor.

“Perfect. Sorry about
that once more,” he told me, leaving the elevator. I watched as the
man walked away and the doors closed behind me. As the elevator
slid smoothly up to the 12
^th
floor I had completely
forgotten what I even came up here for. I couldn’t think about
anything except that guy.

Oh my God, what is
wrong with you? He’s just some guy.
I scolded myself, trying to
stop thinking about him. This wasn’t the sort of thing I did. I
hadn’t had a boyfriend in ages, hell, I hadn’t slept with anyone in
ages. After all, my last relationship had ended so badly I’d sworn
off men forever. Maybe this is all this was. Maybe my libido was
just in overdrive, desperate for something, anything.

I could feel my sex
pulsating underneath the light sundress I wore. I decided to change
my panties quickly when I got to my room, the ones I was wearing
were completely soaked.
Look at you. You’re like a desperate old
divorcee or something, collapsing at the mere sight of a man paying
you the slightest bit of attention. He was just making sure you
were fine, it’s not like he was trying to sleep with you.

Still, no matter how
much I tried, I couldn’t get the thought of that stranger out of my
head. He was so beautiful, so masculine, so perfect.

“What took you so
long?” Lisa asked when I finally met her back down in the
lobby.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean
to.” I told her about the man in the elevator.

“Wow, Caroline, you
should totally have asked him out.”

“Why? First of all, I
looked like a huge idiot, plowing into him like that. Second, I
don’t even know where he’s from. He’s definitely not from
Minneapolis. So like, what’s the point? I wouldn’t ever see him
after we went home? Third, I don’t want a boyfriend. I’m perfectly
happy being single forever.”

“Ugh, you’re so naive
sometimes. This is what the one night stand from heaven is made of.
Sexy guy, Hawaii, super expensive resort. Get him to buy you some
nice dinners, sleep with him, have the time of your life, then go
back home to your regular job.”

I laughed at Lisa’s
ideas of how the world worked. Maybe that was how her world worked,
at least before she met Rob, anyway. But that wasn’t for me.

“Not a chance,
Lisa.”

She shrugged. “Fine,
your loss. Let’s get going, anyway. I want to get some good seats
somewhere so we can hang out and drink until the sun sets.”

As Lisa and I drank
drinks with little umbrellas in them against the beach, relaxing,
chatting about anything, I kept finding my thoughts drifting back
to that stranger in the elevator. I couldn’t help myself, and I had
no idea why. This wasn’t like me at all.

“Did you say you were
going to go surfing in a couple of days?” Lisa asked
eventually.

“Yeah. I think I’ll do
it the day after tomorrow. Why, are you thinking of joining
me?”

“No, I don’t want a
shark to mistake me for a turtle and try to eat me.”

I laughed. “I don’t
think we’re going to be going in deep enough waters for a shark to
be able to sneak up on us, not in a beginner lesson.”

“Still, I don’t trust
it. I’m sure I’m just going to end up on my ass. I’m not really the
athletic type.”

No, that was true. Lisa
had never shown any interest in any real sports. Her idea of
athletics was sitting on the sidelines watching other people,
mainly Rob, play soccer or touch football.

“Fine, if you’re going
to make me go learn how to surf by myself.”

“I definitely am. I’ll
sit on the beach and watch you make an idiot of yourself at the
most. What company are you going with?”

“I don’t know, I was
just going to go with the recommendation from the concierge.”

“Well, let me know, and
I might just come and watch you.”

“How about you, what
are your plans for the last few days of this awesome vacation?”

“I don’t have any yet.
I’m just going to relax, go with the flow, you know, that sort of
thing.”

Lisa and I didn’t leave
the restaurant until after the sun had well and truly set. We
listened to the soft sound of the waves lapping against the shore,
music wafting over to us from not only our restaurant but the
others along the strip, the sounds of happy people celebrating
their vacations here in Hawaii all around us.

We went back to the
resort, back to our rooms. I lay down in bed and flicked on the TV.
I found that I enjoyed watching the local Hawaiian news at night,
it made me feel like I was really here, like I was truly
experiencing Hawaii.

While Lisa had a
shower, I watched the screen, but the words weren’t clicking
through my brain. No matter what I did to try and forget him, that
stranger kept coming back into my head.

Those beautiful blue
eyes, the hard muscles of his arms, that perfect amount of
stubble... it was more than I could take. Every time I closed my
eyes I could see him. I wanted to see him again. That smile... No.
I couldn’t have these thoughts. Surely it was just because I was
drunk. Maybe I’d had one or two mai tais too many while I was out
with Lisa. The alcohol had obviously just gone to my head. In the
morning, I’d be fine.

Sure enough, the next
day I was back to normal. I thought about the guy once or twice,
but for the most part, I had moved on. After all, I was never going
to see him again. What was the point of pining after a stranger,
someone I didn’t even know?

Lisa and I went out for
breakfast then spent the day hanging out by the pool, lounging in
the sun.

“This is basically the
perfect life,” she told me, and I nodded.

“Sure is. When I found
out we were going to Hawaii, this was exactly what I had been
expecting.”

The next morning I got
up and got ready for my surfing lesson. It wasn’t with the hotel
directly, but was with a company the resort partnered with. Based
out of Ala Moana beach, the resort offered a shuttle, but seeing as
it was only a 20 minute walk, I decided I’d take the fresh air
route. Waikiki in the mornings was nice. The heat of the day hadn’t
set in yet, and I loved the feeling of the fresh ocean air on my
face. We didn’t get a lot of it in Minneapolis.

I found the shack with
the company name on it I was looking for, with the perfect
stereotypical surfer waiting out the front for us: wearing a short
wetsuit, his shoulder length blonde hair still damp with the odd
drop of water dripping and disappearing into the black fabric of
his suit. I went up to him, and introduced myself.

“Hi. I’m Caroline, I
think I’m signed up for a beginner’s lesson with you today,” I
started shyly.

“Aloha, Caroline. I’m
Stevo,” the man replied in an obviously Australian accent, holding
out his hand. “As I’m sure you’ll notice, I’m not exactly a born
and bred local, but I came out here for a surfing vacation a few
years back, and loved it enough to make it my home,” he told me as
he grabbed some paperwork and a pen for me to fill it out. Age,
date of birth, medical problems, height and weight, skill level.
All things I knew how to fill out, thankfully. “When you’re
finished, just leave the sheet there and we’ll get you set up with
a board.” You’re wearing your bathing suit under your clothes?
Good, you can take them off wherever and I’ll give you a box to
keep them in. You’re the first one here from today’s group, I’m
sure the others will show up pretty quickly.”

Stevo was talkative and
friendly, and about five minutes after he set me up with a huge
Malibu board (“I know they’re huge, but they’re way easier to
balance on, which is awesome if you’re just starting out.”) another
couple showed up, having signed up online for the lesson. Ten
minutes later, after another three people had showed up, Stevo was
just about ready to take us out.

“We’re just waiting on
one more person, and if I’m not mistaken, here he comes now,” he
told us, and I looked to where he was looking.

As soon as I saw the
man he was looking at, my heart froze in my chest. It was that same
guy! I would have recognized that wavy brown hair anywhere. He was
topless now, showing off a muscular chest with just the perfect
amount of hair. I wanted to run my hands through it so badly, I
wanted to lie on top of him and stroke that muscular body, slide my
hands down to his abs, tracing the visible lines of his abs, the
perfect six pack adorning him, before moving even further down,
down towards his...

Stop it, Caroline.
What the hell is wrong with you?
I forced my brain to stop
thinking about it, but it was too late. I could feel my body
reacting to the fantasy I’d just had. Great. Just great. I turned
away from him and grabbed my board as Stevo got the guy checked in.
I didn’t want to see if he recognized me.

Obviously he isn’t
going to recognize you. You were just some random chick he ran into
in the hotel. I’m sure he forgot you existed like two seconds after
it happened.
A part of me wanted to believe I was more
memorable than that, especially since I couldn’t get him out of my
head, but I knew I wasn’t. I was just a kind-of-on-the-pretty-side
girl from Oklahoma, he was a God in human form.

“Awesome, everyone’s
set, so let’s get going!” Stevo finally called out. I made sure not
to turn around and look at the guy. I didn’t want to see him. I
didn’t want to know if he recognized me. I didn’t want my body to
react the way it did every time I looked at him. It felt so wrong,
and yet at the same time, it felt so good. It felt naughty.

As we walked along the
beach towards the surf, I began to silently thank God that Lisa
hadn’t decided to come with me today. I asked her before leaving,
but she’d decided to sleep in. I could only imagine her reaction if
she had. She would have instantly introduced me to the guy, told
him how hot I thought he was, and suggested we go out for drinks
after the lesson. Yes, it was definitely a lifesaver that Lisa
hadn’t shown up.

When we got down to the
beach, Stevo got us all to put down our boards, so we could learn
the positioning. I walked to the other side of the couple that had
arrived after me, making sure I was on the far end.

We spent the next
twenty minutes practicing jumping up on the surfboard, while Stevo
came around and gave us tips and advice. It was tougher than I
thought it would be, even with the board just sitting on the sand.
I had years of balance practice from figure skating under my belt,
but it had been so long since I had done anything that required any
sort of balance skills that it felt like I was starting again from
square one. Then, we got a bit of a talk about paddling out,
choosing a wave, tips on how to catch the waves, and eventually
Stevo invited us into the water to practice.

I quickly realized that
there was no way I was going to be able to avoid the man completely
in the water. We made eye contact after a couple of minutes, and he
smiled at me. I thought I was going to melt. His smile was
gorgeous, it felt like it sent rays of sunlight penetrating through
my skin.

Does that mean he
recognized me, or is he just being polite?

Before I got the chance
to overanalyze the situation to death, Stevo called me over.

“Caroline, you’re up!”
he announced. I swam over to him on my board. We were in waist deep
water, the waves we were catching had to be less than six inches
high, but they looked enormous to me.